Miliband denies his plans could plunge country into darkness

The Labour leader brushed off the furious response of firms such as Centrica to his proposal to freeze energy prices for almost two years if Labour wins the general election in 2015.

The energy giants have warned of black-outs, job losses and cuts to their investment programmes if Mr Miliband proceeds with the unprecedented step.

But he said: “I would say that they are pretty unreliable witnesses. These are people who are overcharging people, so of course they are going to say when someone calls time on it that they are not very happy.”

Drawing clear dividing lines between his approach to the energy giants and that of the coalition, Mr Miliband added: “We have got the Government taking their side and saying the same thing, supporting the energy companies.

“That’s fine, they can do that. But I am determined to make this change.”

Liberal Democrat Energy Secretary Ed Davey warned that Labour’s policy could result in a repeat of California’s attempted restructuring of the energy industry in 2000, which ended in disaster.

“When they tried to fix prices in California it resulted in an electricity crisis and widespread blackouts,” said Mr Davey.

But Mr Miliband retorted: “There are bound to be people coming up with scare stories... California was a totally different approach. It was a deregulated approach, not the kind of approach we are talking about.”

The Doncaster North MP added: “Unless you have public confidence in the system, public consent for the way the system works, it’s never going to work. I think the energy companies should wake up to this, frankly. And I’m determined that if they don’t, then we will put in place the right system.”

He warned that energy companies would be breaking the law if they agreed between themselves to raise prices ahead of the election to ensure they escaped a financial hit if Labour wins.

In addition to unveiling his flagship policy, Mr Miliband used his speech on Tuesday afternoon to compare himself favourably with David Cameron in any future head-to-head debate about the two men’s leadership.

Yesterday he went further, telling the conference it was time for the Prime Minister to commit to holding televised debates in 2015.

It is understood Mr Miliband wants to see the same format as last time repeated, with the three main party leaders quizzed over three debates – which would exclude the possibility of Ukip’s Nigel Farage taking part.

“We started a debate this week about Labour’s price freeze... We should have that debate over the coming months,” Mr Miliband said. “We should also have that debate in the TV election debates.

“It’s time for David Cameron to stop ducking and diving and agree to those TV debates, just like at the last general election, so the country can make its choice.”

Mr Cameron has so far failed to give a conclusive answer on whether there will be televised leadership debates in 2015.

Earlier this year Mr Cameron said the debates before the 2010 general election were “a bit boring”, because strict rules stifled the format. On reports that he wanted to shift the debates out of the campaign period, he said in January: “Because we now have a fixed-term Parliament I think we should have more public debate... rather than just cramming everything into the election campaign.”

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